MADURAI: Bank loans worth Rs 2,756 crore and subsidies worth Rs 683 crore were provided to farmers, while as many as 19,332 young entrepreneurs were created in the state over the short tenure of this DMK regime, said Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises TM Anbarasan on Tuesday during the small grain festival and expo at Government Agriculture College in Madurai. Along with Anbarasan, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare MRK Panneer Selvam, and Minister of Commercial Taxes and Registration P Moorthy also attended the exhibition.
The event was jointly organised by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of MSME, Tamil Nadu department of agriculture marketing and commerce, and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, to create awareness among the people about the benefits of small grain foods to commemorate the International Year of Small Grains.
"Considering the benefits of small grains, farmers across the state are being encouraged to involve in cultivating small grains. Our farmers and entrepreneurs should use this opportunity to focus on growing small grains and converting them into value-added products. Various subsidy schemes are implemented by the Department of Agriculture for the cultivation of small grains and conversion of the small grains so produced into value-added food products. There are various subsidies from the union and state governments and special loans are being provided at the moment," Anbarasan said.
He further added that ever since Chief Minister MK Stalin took charge, more importance has been given to the agricultural sector and a separate budget was announced for the same. "Various schemes are being implemented to increase the income of farmers and enable better prices for their produce. The government acts as a bridge to the agricultural giants and entrepreneurs and provides various grants and loans for their business development. Under the NITS scheme, 169 food processing industries will receive Rs 19.29 crore at a subsidy of Rs 77 crore bank loan assistance.
In order to encourage MSMEs in Tamil Nadu, 10 types of subsidies such as investment subsidies, electricity subsidies, and interest subsidies are given. The state government has taken responsibility and so far 8, 150 companies have been given Rs 519 crore as subsidies. Specifically, 117 food processing companies were given subsidies of around Rs 19.70 crores. Under the Prime Minister's Food Processing Scheme (PM-TME) scheme for food processing micro-enterprises, around 3,073 food processing enterprises have been provided with a grant of Rs 67.19 crore for projects worth Rs 225 crore," Anbarasan added.
Following this, Panneerselvam and Moorthy spoke about the benefits of small grains and also the special scheme that is initiated in the state to assist the farmers who cultivate small grains in the state. Meetings between producers, buyers, sellers, and exporters, seminars on the benefits of small grains, competitions among women's self-help groups, and demonstrations of small grain food recipes were also organised at the expo.